Apponequet students witness mock fatal crash

LAKEVILLE — In a season filled with joy and anticipation, seniors at Apponequet Regional High School were exposed last Friday morning to a harsh dose of reality, 21st-century style.

CHRISTOPHER SHOTT

LAKEVILLE — In a season filled with joy and anticipation, seniors at Apponequet Regional High School were exposed last Friday morning to a harsh dose of reality, 21st-century style.

Under the direction of School Resource Officer Ryan Maltais of the Lakeville Police Department, five soon-to-be Apponequet graduates played out a mock two-car, head-on collision of two automobiles with considerable help from local police officers, firefighters, emergency service technicians and even a funeral director. The purpose of the 30-minute demonstration was to illuminate the consequences of driving impaired — either because of liquor or drugs — and to drive home the value of making good decisions.

With two real vehicles involved in collisions donated and delivered by Hank Zion's Auto Salvage of Middleboro, five Apponequet seniors — Rob Farias, Josh Fickert, Derek Clancy, Lizzie Loranger and Ryan Dunn — superbly performed their roles as drivers and passengers in a head-on crash. Loranger and Dunn were seated in one vehicle, while the other three occupied the other vehicle, and all five were splattered with special-effects blood.

The five actors were already positioned when the remainder of the senior class filed out of the school and to the scene in an open area between the football stadium and softball diamond. During the ensuing half-hour, Lakeville Police Department, Freetown Fire Department and Lakeville Fire Department responders arrived on the scene after being summoned, with sirens blaring and emergency lights flashing on their vehicles.

In the mock scenario, all five students in the collision were drinking and empty beer bottles and cans were strewn in the vicinity, retrieved on the ground and in the autos by police and emergency responders. Loranger and Dunn were only mildly injured, but the other three were seriously wounded.

As the scene played out, Maltais described every detail for students and continually stressed the benefits of good decision-making. He was assisted by colleagues Sergeant Sean Joyce and Officer Hal Marshall.

"A split second can change your life," Maltais told students. "Time and time again, I have seen accidents like this one occur and what happens to those who are involved."

As driver of the other vehicle, Clancy was portrayed as having been thrown through the windshield and declared dead at the scene. Farias needed to be extricated by a "Jaws of Life" device and Fickert was fitted with a cervical collar before being carted away on a stretcher.

While Farias and Fickert were "transported" from the scene in ambulances, Loranger and Dunn were arrested after failing a sobriety test, hand-cuffed and delivered into police custody in a cruiser. The climax of the program occurred when a hearse and driver arrived from the Dahlborg-MacNevin Funeral Home of Lakeville to convey Clancy's "remains."

Remarkably, while some students appeared to be bemused during the bulk of the program, all remained silent and sober when Clancy's "body" was carried away in the hearse.

Maltais said Friday's program — the first of its kind ever staged at the school — was specifically timed to coordinate with Apponequet's annual Junior-Senior Prom, which was held the following night at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. He offered valuable advice to seniors less than 36 hours before the crowning social gathering of their high school tenures.

"Adding liquor or drugs to any situation is a recipe for failure," Maltais said. "If you are going to drink or take drugs, don't drive. Call someone to drive for you."

Following the outdoor program, Maltais reconvened the seniors inside the school's gymnasium to explain the legalities of impaired driving (including the severity of charges such as Operating Under the Influence and vehicular homicide) and to answer several questions raised by students. Maltais's efforts in increasing awareness of the perils of impaired driving appeared to hit home.

"It was crazy seeing our classmates injured and it really hit me hard," said senior Andrew Frigault, who said he planned to attend the prom. "This program was awesome and I think it opened a lot of people's eyes."

Miraculously "raised" from the dead, Clancy offered a bird's-eye view of Friday proceedings.

"It was a good experience to see what really happens in a crash," he said. "Being in a hearse was creepy."

Appropriately, Maltais, who is completing his second year as Apponequet's SRO, had the final say in Friday's program.

"Over the last two years, I've gotten to know many of you well," he said. "The last thing I would ever want to do is roll up to a real scene some night like this one and find one of you there."